After our first two series -- AIDS in the Caribbean in 2001, and AIDS in South Florida in 2003 -- the Kaiser Family Foundation awarded Staff Writer Tim Collie and Staff Photographer Mike Stocker a Kaiser Media Mini-Fellowship in Health to support the project.

As in our past series, some may find the photos and stories troubling.

But make no mistake: This is a story every South Floridian should take time to read and understand.

AIDS has devastated the Caribbean. And South Florida's ties to the Caribbean are deep and complex. Consider:

-- We have the largest population of Haitians of any region in the United States, 246,000.

-- People from the West Indies, the non-Spanish-speaking countries of the Caribbean, make up 8 percent of South Florida's population.

-- Half of U.S. trade with the Caribbean flows through Florida.

-- One of every 6.5 jobs, a total of 2,643,000 in the Caribbean, is tied to tourism.

But there is hope this holiday season.

Orphanages and agencies are emerging to take care of children who are orphaned by AIDS.

Read about some of the people and local community groups who are dedicating their lives to help in this crisis.

Victoria Lynn Ward was born before anyone thought to test newborns for AIDS. She defied all odds by living to age 18. Her family and doctors credit her spirit. Her story reflects the struggles and triumphs of thousands like her throughout the region.

At 16, Charline Noel Jocelyn is thinking about her future and the world she will enter as an HIV-positive woman. She could return to the street. Or she could fulfill her mission of telling others that life with the virus is possible.

Women who need medicine for themselves and their children struggle to find jobs that pay well. The best-paying jobs in the Dominican Republic require HIV testing. Many women turn to the country's thriving sex industry to pay the bills.

A generation of grandmothers forms a social safety net for thousands of children whose parents have died of AIDS. The women, often elderly, frail and still grieving, struggle each day to keep the family fed, clothed and off the streets.